


thank you

by elyvorg



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Blood, Fanart, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Only slight canon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 02:38:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19781539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elyvorg/pseuds/elyvorg
Summary: In which Kaito's sidekicks give him the hug he's always needed, right before the end. (With accompanying arts.)





	thank you

At Kaito’s words, Maki’s knife fell to the ground with a clatter, and something in her just broke. Stumbling towards Kaito, she all but fell onto him, throwing her arm around his shoulders and sobbing helplessly into his chest.

Kaito staggered a little under her weight, looking down at her, stunned. “H-Hey, c’mon, Maki Roll…” he protested. “Y-You’re gonna get blood all over you…”

“Shut up. Don’t care,” she mumbled indistinctly through her sobs, clinging to him even tighter.

Watching Maki like this, as she let herself show for the first time the full extent of how much Kaito meant to her, Shuichi was suddenly, painfully aware that he’d never get another chance.

There was a faint, startled “Huh…?” from Kaito as Shuichi joined Maki in the hug.

Shuichi couldn’t help but think of everything that had just been said – Maki’s feelings for Kaito, and him responding by making it all about her; Kaito’s earlier confession to having been _jealous_ of Shuichi, and his lack of an answer to Shuichi’s insistence that he shouldn’t have needed to be. It was all the same thing, and it _wasn’t right_.

“Kaito… _thank you_ ,” Shuichi told him with as much urgency as he could muster, feeling Maki nod emphatically along with his words. Kaito still wasn’t returning the hug, like he didn’t need it, like he didn’t _deserve_ it. “Just… thank you,” Shuichi repeated. “For everything.”

He had to know. Kaito had to know how important he was, how much he’d done for them. Shuichi couldn’t let him die without understanding that. He just couldn’t.

Shuichi kept on hugging his best friend, his _hero_ , beginning to worry that he’d never get it through to him, when Kaito gave a sudden, hitched breath and pulled his sidekicks close with all his might.

“N-No,” he mumbled, his voice wavering, so quiet that no-one except the three of them could have heard. “Hey, that… that’s my line.”

He understood – but it’d done even more for him than Shuichi had been expecting. All at once, Shuichi was hit with the truth he should have known all along, from those words, from the desperate emotion in Kaito’s strained breathing, from the way he held onto them like he never wanted to let go. This whole time, Kaito had been just as scared as anyone. He’d needed them every bit as much as they’d needed him.

* * *

When Kaito broke away from the hug at last, he was back to beaming at them like nothing had just happened – but, even though he was still fighting through his pain to do so, still covered in his own blood, his smile looked just a little bit brighter than it had before.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally drew this to post on my tumblr, but since I ended up writing a mini-fic to accompany it, I figured I might as well post it here too. For more of my art that doesn't come accompanied with fic, including lots of DRV3, check out my [ tumblr](https://elyvorg.tumblr.com).


End file.
